Jean-Michel Franceries has been making amps roar for over 40 years.
His first group, he started it at 14 years old in the cellar of his building, the drummer was playing with knitting needles. Inexhaustible on the rock and then punk movements of the 1960s and 1970s, Jean-Michel Franceries, 60, is an informed music lover and a veritable living encyclopedia. He has played in more than ten groups and is teeming with anecdotes and surprising memories.
The teenage rebellion
“I come from a family of musicians, says Jean-Michel Franceries. My grandfather was a conductor, my father was a classical musician and at one time directed the Conservatoire de Lyon. I played the piano from 6 to 14 years old but, one day, I listened to my first Rolling Stones album, I then let go of the family piano and I absolutely wanted to be like Keith Richards: rock! There was also the desire to oppose the family musical culture, I started playing the guitar with some friends, and even if we didn’t know how to play well, we didn’t care! “. In 1976, he discovered the punk movement with his friends during a Ramones concert in Lyon. “It was pure energy, a sense of urgency! Besides, it was easy to play, you don’t have to be a great musician. It was also an opportunity for us to reject all the aging stars that we heard on the radio at the time … “. He discovered American punk, and especially English punk, with the Sex Pistols and the Clashs.
Opening act for David Bowie!
High school student, then law student, Jean-Michel continues to play in several formations, Safety, then Monarchs, in particular with his friend Christophe Bresard. The Lyon punk-rock scene is on the rise, for example with the group Starshooter. Monarchs is having some success, and the band of friends goes on to concerts. Jean-Michel recalls with a big smile his watered evenings with Étienne Daho or others … “I rented my amp from Chuck Berry! He was playing in Lyon and his failed … as I had exactly the same, I rented him for 2000 francs at the time. A fortune for me! I haven’t touched the settings for months “. He left for a while in Nice in 1986, to follow his friend at the time and finish his law studies, the opportunity for him to work at Radio Baie des Anges, where he interviewed among others Charles Pasqua and François Mitterrand. Without stopping playing. One of his fondest memories remains the first part of a David Bowie concert in 1987, in front of several thousand people. “I was a guitarist in the Nice group Les Rodeurs. Marie, a friend who was organizing Bowie’s tour, asked us to replace Johnny Cleeg at the last minute! Jean-Michel subsequently reformed Les Monarchs, then Safety, a group with which he still plays.
Udid not reissue an album recently
Lately the Label Caméléon published an EP (45 rpm 4 titles) of Monarchs, exhuming tapes dating from 1981. The 300 copies left in a few weeks!
Today, Jean-Michel has calmed down anyway. He teaches economic and social sciences at the Lycée Saint-Maurice in Romans-sur-Isère. Cycling has replaced whiskey and fencing cigarettes. He still jealously watches over his vinyl collection, which at one point had nearly 15,000 records. “J‘Tired of lugging them around with each move, I purified by keeping only a few hundred, the substantial marrow! “. There is no doubt that we must find the rare pearls of rock from the 60’s to the 80’s!
